With a new management team at the helm of the State Farm Bayou Classic, the Thanksgiving weekend event is expanding to include more activities, including the return of its Thanksgiving Day parade.

View full sizeTimes-Picayune archiveThe Bayou Classic halftime show gets under way with a drum major for Southern University leading the way, in 2007.

New
events include a post-game party on the Superdome's new club level, a
golf tournament, a Gospel brunch, a panel discussion about the future of
black universities, and a health, jobs, college and technology fair.

The
Battle of the Bands and the Greek Show will still be major events
leading up to the gridiron match, and Champions Square will host the
pre- and post-game celebrations.

The New Orleans Convention
Company won a bid in February to take over the weekend events, and
president Dottie Belletto said her company hopes to include the whole
city in the Bayou Classic experience. The former management company, The
Bickerstaff Group, is based in Washington, D.C.

"We wanted to
open this up to the community," Belletto said. "It is a football game,
but it's so much more. It brings families together. It brings together
the festivities of the holidays."

The
Thanksgiving Day parade, held as a salute to America's historically
black colleges and universities, will make its return after about 30
years, rolling at 4 p.m. through downtown New Orleans beginning in front
of the Superdome.

It will also give parade-goers a taste of
Battle of the Bands, held the day before the game, when bands from
Southern and Grambling State universities take part in the parade. The
lineup also includes the Rebirth and Hot 8 brass bands, several high
school bands, the Young Men Olympian Junior Benevolent Association and
elements from the Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club.

Some of
those who participated in the civil rights Freedom Rides will also be
part of the parade as they mark the 50th anniversary of their historic
rides through the South testing bus integration.

A Friday panel
discussion about the future of historically black colleges and
universities will be held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel at 2 p.m. moderated
by Soledad O'Brien, the former CNN anchor who hosts the station's "In
America" documentaries, such as "Black in America" and "Latino in
America."

Panelists will be Grambling President Frank Pogue,
Southern University System President Ronald Mason Jr., state Rep.
Patricia Haynes Smith and Lezli Baskerville, president of the National
Association For Equal Opportunity In High Education.

View full sizeTimes-Picayune archiveThe Grambling University Band holds up its end of the halftime show of the Bayou Classic, in 2000.

The
parade and panel discussion are free and open to the public. Other
public events include a career fair, college fair, health fair and
technology showcase at the Hyatt on Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; a
service activity to build a playground for Andrew Wilson Charter School
on Friday at 8:30 a.m.; and pre- and post-game parties at Champions
Square, from 10 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. and from 5 to 6:30 p.m.

Ticketed
events include a Friday golf tournament at the Joe Bartholomew Golf
Course, the Friday Battle of the Bands and Greek show, a post-game party
at the Superdome's Club XLIV and a gospel brunch at Harrah's New
Orleans Casino on Sunday. Tickets to these events can be purchased at www.MyBayouClassic.com.

All these events can be attended without tickets to the Bayou Classic game.

Businesses
can also purchase game tickets for New Orleans public school children
at a discounted rate of $15 per child. Contact Chuck Morse at
cmorsecompany@gmail.com for information.